Review: Toys R' Us Exclusive Zodac

After visiting numerous dusty piles of exclusive wave 1 and 2 two-packs living out shunned, wasted lives on the clearance aisles of toy stores around Seattle, I came across a message board posting on the Org from a fan showing off several shots of MOTUC Green Lantern Vs. Zodac boxes at a store in Washington State while he was on vacation. He also took a shot of the store's distinctly ghetto exterior, which I immediately recognized with schoolgirl-like glee as being located less than an hour from my house! Sure enough, two sets of the figures were taking shelter behind a vangaurd of Lex Luthors and He-Men. And on sale no less! Success!

I tried very hard not to get excited about the idea of springing for yet another flavor of Zodac (the others being vanilla bean Zodac and chocolate thunder Zodak), but I quickly remembered that I had already spent over a couple grand on my mostly shameless pastime, and that I will undoubtedly be toiling away to secure funding for other such grandiose "investments" in the coming years, stuffing China's bulging coffers to feed my addiction to their sweet and sour resin opium.

In no way did I expect this to be a replacement for original MOTUC Zodac figure, which was a defiantly faithful redesign of its 1982 debut. Even as I opened the packaging, wafting the nostalgic plasticity I coveted as a child (yes, I'm a confessed wafter), my incredulous mummers turned to stone and crumbled on the floor at the sight of the improvements that had made to this newest rendition. The head features noticeably brighter, richer cherry red paint, while the black limpid pools of its eyes have grown an added layer of gloss, akin to the eyes of a helpless harp seal pup staring innocently into the shaft of a club.

A new feature censored by the package's choking hazard sticker and mossy green masonry are the small gray booties found on Keldor, Stratos, and numerous other figures in the line. Though seemingly an insignificant change, I feel it adds a lot to the character's design by detracting from the alienness that helped so many artists and writers peg Zodac for a villain in the franchise's youth. The jutting arm fins borrowed from Skeletor's design could be considered an extension of the figure's new white gloves, further humanizing the cosmic enforcer and helping fans cement him in thier minds as a heroic variant of the more evil looking design with clawed feet borrowed from Skeletor, or perhaps even canonizing him as the pale, gotee-clad apprentice featured in the classic Filmation cartoon series. For me, the new gloves look especially stylish against his bony, veined hands, and reminds me of Lion-O from the recently reanimated Thundercats cartoon.

I felt a tinge of betrayal digging through the packaging to find that the staff portrayed in the packaging's amateurish boxart was not actually included with this figure, leaving us to be content with the same ray gun used by the slightly less fashionable Zodac. Alternatively, fans can simply paint over the otherwise-useless pink Zodak staff they received in the first weapons pack (~$2 for the acrylic paint, and $2 for the brush. I recommend a matte, non-glossy finish that will run ~$6 for the can, and practice spraying your sister's favorite toys first so you don't end up using too much on the staff).

Everything else on this figure is identical to the original, except for one bad case of bobble-head. The hole carved into the backside of Zodac's head is slightly too large for the neck peg it attaches too, and while you don't need to worry about the head falling off into your Captain Crunch, you may need to stick something in there to fill in the added gap, such as a bit of rubber cement.

Pixel Dan reviews MOTUC Vs. DCUC Green Lantern Vs. Zodac